Archive for the ‘Kurtis sports cars’ tag

1953 Muntz Jet, to be sold in Burbank next month. Photo by Pawel Litwinski, courtesy Auctions America.

Earl “Madman” Muntz’s career as an automaker was all too brief, but over the course of five years, he managed to produce nearly 400 examples of his unique sport-luxury convertible. Today, an estimated 50 Muntz Jets survive, which makes seeing two poised to cross the auction block in the coming month a rare occurrence indeed.

Photo by Pawel Litwinski, courtesy Auctions America.

Muntz was a natural-born pitchman who got his start hawking used cars in Illinois in the 1930s. By the early 1940s, Muntz had moved his act to the West Coast, and during the war years his ebullient style (and, perhaps, limited competition) earned him the title of the largest used car dealer in the world. At the war’s conclusion, Muntz focused his effort on selling new models for Kaiser-Frazer, and by 1947 his energy turned the California dealership into the largest in the country. An electronics buff, Muntz would also find a way to build television sets cheaper than anyone else, and his direct-to-the-consumer sales model would become significant to his future automotive endeavors.

Photo by Pawel Litwinski, courtesy Auctions America.

Around the same time, race-car builder Frank Kurtis was building sports cars for the street in his Glendale, California, shop. The low-volume Kurtis Sport was a two-seat convertible with an aluminum body and, generally, a flathead Ford V-8 for power, though customers could specify their drivetrain of choice or even purchase the Kurtis Sport in kit form. Enter Madman Muntz, who saw the Kurtis Sport during a visit to buy a one-off custom on a Buick chassis from Frank Kurtis. Impressed by the Kurtis Sport’s potential, Muntz negotiated a deal to buy the rights and tooling to the car, and in 1950 began his short-lived career as an automaker.

Photo by Pawel Litwinski, courtesy Auctions America.

Muntz saw the Kurtis Sport’s potential, but he also saw its limitations. Looking to broaden the car’s appeal, he stretched the wheelbase from 110 inches to 113 inches, giving sufficient room to add a rear seat and up passenger capacity to four. Weather protection came not from a folding soft top, but from a removable steel hardtop, padded for a more traditional look. The drawback to this design was that the roof could not be carried in the car, meaning that topless motoring required reliably fair weather. Instead of the Kurtis Sport’s flathead Ford V-8, Muntz struck a deal with Cadillac to supply its 331-cubic-inch, 160-horsepower V-8, and in keeping with the car’s luxury aspirations, Muntz increased the quality of the car’s interior appointments. Looking for a suitable name to market his car to consumers (directly, without the aid of a dealer network, just like his television sets), he called it the Muntz Jet.

Photo by Pawel Litwinski, courtesy Auctions America.

A mere 28 Muntz Jets were built in California before Muntz moved the operation to Evanston, Illinois. Based on the feedback received on early cars, Muntz revised the design in several significant ways. To give more passenger legroom, the wheelbase was stretched an additional three inches (to 116 inches), and a new body was crafted from steel instead of aluminum. Though the changes added roughly 400 pounds to the car, they also aided durability, as several early customers complained that Muntz Jet bodywork could be dented merely by leaning on the car. Also reportedly for reasons of durability (though perhaps supply also entered into the equation), Muntz replaced the Cadillac V-8 with a modified Lincoln V-8, which would remain the standard engine throughout the remainder of the car’s production run (which lasted until 1954).

1951 Muntz Jet. Photo by David Newhardt, courtesy Mecum Auctions.

Like the Tucker 48, the Muntz Jet also placed something of an emphasis on safety, coming equipped with seat belts and a padded dash. In the early 1950s, safety wasn’t a major selling point for new automobiles, but Muntz quickly spun this to his advantage by pointing out that race cars had seat belts, so if his car had them, it must be fast. Though no Hollywood A-listers of the day purchased a Muntz Jet, celebrity owners did include early film star Clara Bow and singer Vic Damone.

Photo by David Newhardt, courtesy Mecum Auctions.

Priced at $5,500, the Muntz Jet was more expensive than most Cadillacs at the time, yet Muntz later admitted to losing $1,000 on each car assembled. The biggest reason was his low production volume, which reduced the possibility of significant automation. By his own reckoning, labor costs alone added $2,000 to each Muntz Jet produced, and in his company’s five-year history, less than 400 of the removable hardtop convertibles were assembled.

Photo by David Newhardt, courtesy Mecum Auctions.

On August 2, Auctions America will offer a 1953 Muntz Jet convertible at its Burbank, California, sale. Formerly part of the Bob Pond collection, this yellow Muntz Jet has a known ownership history dating back to 1969, and was fully restored in 2000. Options on the car include a deluxe heater, an outside spotlight, a driver’s side-view mirror, and even an RCA 8-track tape player, though this item was surely added later in the car’s life. Based upon its rarity and condition, Auctions America predicts a selling price between $150,000 and $200,000.

Photo by David Newhardt, courtesy Mecum Auctions.

Less is known about the 1951 Muntz Jet convertible, chassis M125, set to cross the stage at Mecum’s Monterey sale on August 14-16. Said to be part of an estate, the car was once restored to a rather unusual standard (including faux snakeskin upholstery and headliner), but has not been run in roughly two decades and is being sold in “as-is” condition, and is offered at no reserve. Mecum expects to realize a selling price between $50,000 and $75,000.

We all celebrate the accomplishments and achievements of the designers, builders and drivers of the cars we enjoy, and it is no different for those of us who have come to appreciate the vintage fiberglass cars of the 1950s. But America is not just car-crazy – we also look toward the feature films of Hollywood for our recreation and entertainment. And when Hollywood turns its gaze upon cars, well, it doesn’t get much better than that.

That’s exactly what happened in the early to mid-1950s, when Universal International Pictures cast Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie, Don Taylor, and several early fiberglass cars in its 1954 film Johnny Dark. The movie was filmed in 1953; and while GIs had popularized European sports cars among American drivers in the years since World War II, the drum beating across the land for an American sports car was at its height. What new sports cars would emerge? Which company would be first? Which would be the best performer?

All of these themes were interwoven into the movie, and the directors wanted to keep the American public hungering for more. So they “cast” eight cars that were virtually unknown in the starring roles of the second race in the film. Five of these cars were brand-spanking-new fiberglass specials. They were:

* The Woodill Wildfire, a fiberglass special. This was a new body style that had debuted in the summer of 1953. It was brand new when it was being filmed in race scenes near Reno, Nevada.
* The Victress S1 Roadster, a fiberglass special. The Victress had debuted in late 1952, and the Guy Mabee Special using a Victress body had just become the world’s fastest sports car at Bonneville in 1953, with a record speed of more than 203 MPH.
* The Glasspar G2 Roadster, a fiberglass special.
* The Grantham Stardust, a fiberglass special.
* The Irwin Lancer, a fiberglass special.
* The Bohman Special, a handcrafted sports car by Chris Bohman. Chris was the son of Maurice Bohman of the Pasadena Coachbuilding firm Bohman and Schwartz.
* The Chuck Tatum Special, a handcrafted sports car built by Chuck Tatum with a body designed and built by Jack Hagemann.
* The Kurtis Kraft Sports Car, built by Frank Kurtis of Glendale, California.

We’ve seen the trailer for the movie here before on Hemmings. It’s always fun to watch:

Our gang at Forgotten Fiberglass has been collecting Johnny Dark memorabilia for years. Recently, we found an original script from the movie in great condition! As shown in the script, here’s how the movie opens:

Medium close shot external track tower…

Emory, Pit-Chief, in white smock, a mechanic in white coveralls, and a young engineer, in sports clothes, are watching off to foreground… heads turn as the on-screen cars speed by. A short-wave set and transmitter installation is set up near the men. William Scott, known as “Scotty,” Chief Engineer of Fielding Motors, comes on background – camera dollies up closer as mechanic reaches for mike. Scotty speaks to Emory – mechanic moves away from mike – camera dollies to close up of Scotty and Emory – they talk – Emory speaks into mike, “What kind of engines you got under those hoods, Mister Emory? They don’t sound like…”

Johnny Dark is a car-crazy-guy kind of movie. It centers around the exploits of Johnny Dark – played by Tony Curtis – and his passion for building a sports car where he works, Fielding Motors. In reality, he’s driving one of the first Woodill Wildfire Series 2 bodies that came out in the summer of 1953. This movie is what the guys at Forgotten Fiberglass and those with these types of cars watch and celebrate – it’s our “trip to mecca” for our hobby.

One of our friends of fiberglass, Chuck Tatum, was not only in the movie, but so was his car, a famous West Coast race car in the early to mid-1950s. Recently, Chuck reminded me that this was an A-level movie all the way, back in 1954. We tend to think of this as a superficial movie with scant attention to the subject matter, but it was far from being a B-movie. The fact that both Tony Curtis and Piper Laurie starred shows the A-level performers that Universal dedicated to the movie.

And that wasn’t all.

Production notes that were released with the movie touted the importance and timing of this film and its subject. Here are the opening two paragraphs of the seven-page typed production notes from the movie, released to the press in 1954 as a promotional tool:

Johnny Dark: Production Notes- Universal International Films: The sports car craze now sweeping the country provides the thematic background for Universal-International’s Technicolor production of Johnny Dark, produced by William Alland, with George Sherman directing a cast headed by Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie, Don Taylor, Paul Kelly, Ilka Chase, Sidney Blackmer and Ruth Hampton.

One of the most vigorous movements in the nation’s automotive field, the widespread interest in sports-type vehicles is fast beginning to revolutionize Detroit’s busy assembly lines, with U-I being the first studio to base a feature film on the timely subject.

The Production Notes go on to say…

In staging the filmic road race, depicted as a border-to-border run from Canada to Mexico, additional location work took the peripatetic troupe over more than 2,000 miles of territory between the boundaries of the neighboring nations. To facilitate photographic coverage, cinematographer Carl Guthrie used a helicopter especially adapted for the addition of camera gear.

The film debuted in June of 1954 to reviews such as this one from the June 26, 1954, edition of The New York Times:

RIGHTLY assuming that a good many auto passengers also are driving addicts, Universal has put together a mild but rather pleasant little picture called Johnny Dark. Featuring Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie and Don Taylor, the Palace’s newest vaudeville partner remains about as obvious and unstartling as a typical speedway poster, with the same superficial attractiveness.

The plot, in a nutshell, has a bright young engineer, Mr. Curtis, launching his own speed model, winning a Canada-to-Mexico race and the granddaughter of the boss. Not for a minute will anybody doubt his success on all three counts, abetted and opposed, in turn, by the smitten Miss Laurie and his pal, Mr. Taylor. What really sets and sustains the tone of the picture, however, is the familiar, seasoned amiability of Paul Kelly, Sidney Blackmer and Ilka Chase, standing by.

Better still, the goings-on at the Fielding Motor Company, where all six work, hold some tastily authentic shots behind the automobile assembly line. The excellent Technicolor of William Alland’s production is even more enhancing to the climactic race, a full-throttle but standard one. Credit the photographer, nevertheless, for some extremely effective hairbreadth coverage from a helicopter, judging by the shadow.

Pictorially, for that matter, the clean, scrubbed looks of the star trio are no less appealing throughout. Likewise their behavior. Their personal drama, as written by Franklin Coen, just isn’t particularly interesting. But under George Sherman’s casually good-natured direction, the youngsters and their elders make up some pleasant, uncomplicated people, cheerfully doing what they relish. And no harm done.

We may never know why the Corvette and Kaiser Darrin did not appear in Johnny Dark. Both were available – at least in prototype form – in 1953. Filming for all road race scenes started in September 1953 and finished in 3-4 weeks, so the timing would have worked. Perhaps this was too soon for either manufacturer to commit to a final product before their official release.

We may never know the full answer. However, we do know this: American fiberglass sports-car specials – ones built by the factory and built by young American men – were available and leading the way as to where American sports cars were going in designs for the future. These cars were the “supply” of American built and designed sports cars. They were on magazine covers and featured in article after article in publications across the country.

Universal International Films focused on this phenomenon, and thus fiberglass sports cars of the early ’50s ended up taking center stage in the movie. So, if you want to take the pulse of the nation and feel what they felt back in ’53, when American sports cars were on the doorstep and dream of every young American man (and some American women too), check out out the film Johnny Dark.

Geoff Hacker is a Tampa, Florida-based automotive historian who specializes in tracking down bizarre, off-beat, and undocumented automobiles. His favorites are Fifties American fiberglass-bodied cars, and he shares his research into those cars at ForgottenFiberglass.com.

One of the most unique American cars to cross an auction block this fall will do so not in Monterey but in Auburn, Indiana, where the custom 1941 Buick that Frank Kurtis built will go up for sale.

Just before World War II, Kurtis found the Buick – a 1941 Roadmaster with less than 500 miles on its 165hp overhead-valve straight-eight – as a totaled wreck. He bought it, then stuffed it away for the duration of the war, while he managed Joel Thorne’s machine shop. With the war over, Kurtis removed the body from the chassis, removed the X-member from the frame and boxed the rails (to facilitate a much lower seating position), then set about building a new four-passenger convertible body. To do so, he welded steel tubing to the chassis, cast an aluminum cowl and windshield frame, then hand-formed aluminum body panels over the steel tubing and capped it all off with a removable top.

The custom Buick, completed at a cost of $17,000, made its public debut in May 1948, when Kurtis drove it from California to Indianapolis for the 500. There it created a minor sensation and caught the eye of Tom McCahill, who featured it in the October 1948 issue of Mechanix Illustrated. As Gordon Eliot White wrote in “Kurtis-Kraft: Masterworks of Speed and Style,” taking the Buick to Indy led to much greater things for Kurtis.

The reaction of McCahill and indeed throngs of spectators at Indianapolis intrigued Kurtis. With midget production declining as 1948 drew to a close, Kurtis considered building a sports car version of the Bill Hughes vehicle with a light engine, to be called the Kurtis Kar, but that idea died stillborn. The custom Buick offered a better prototype for a road vehicle, and Kurtis decided to build his own car along its lines, producing an attractive sports car that could be sold based on its style and the publicity his race cars had brought him.

Thus Kurtis drew from the Buick to design and build the two-seater Kurtis Sports Car, which went into production in 1949. The same year, Kurtis ended up selling the Buick – which he had used as his personal transportation – to Earl Muntz, who ended up buying the production rights to the Kurtis Sports Car and renamed it the Muntz Jet.

The Buick has since been treated to a full restoration and made its way back to Indiana and Indianapolis, most recently at this year’s Celebration of Automobiles at the Indianapolis 500. Now Auctions America by RM will be selling it at their Labor Day auction in Auburn, Indiana. The pre-auction estimate on the Buick ranges from $240,000 to $280,000.

UPDATE (6.September 2011): While the Kurtis-Buick bid up to $140,000 on Saturday, the bidding didn’t met the car’s reserve, so it went home unsold.

Frank Kurtis was – and still is – known for many things in the American high-performance world, thus our profile of him as a Hot Rod Hero in HMM #71. Less known accomplishments of his – but just as important as the others – were his sports cars, one of which we highlighted back in April. For SIA #83, October 1984, Richard Kelley wrote of another, built in 1939 for Bill Hughes. Its story didn’t end there, though – it ended up in Africa and would have probably been lost to time if it weren’t for a curious Frenchman. Kelley has the story.